Alex Smith’s snaps filled with drama

They were screaming and cheering. Crossing their fingers and high-fiving every gain. Acting like your average out-of-control fans.

They were actually the 49ers‘ players. In the locker room, minutes after they clinched the NFC West by beating the Cardinals, the 49ers turned into the biggest Minnesota fans on earth.

If there had been Vikings helmets available, the 49ers all would have donned them and blown the Viking horn. They cheered Adrian Peterson’s runs, yelled for Christian Ponder’s passes. And as the Vikings lined up for a game-winning field goal, tackle Joe Staley shouted,

“Gimme that bye week!”

The 49ers got it. One week after their worst loss of the season, when they squandered the chance to grab the No. 2 seed without any help, everything went their way. Back on top of the world.

The 49ers have won back-to-back NFC West titles. And with Minnesota’s win over Green Bay, they earned the second seed in the NFC and a first-round bye for the second consecutive season.

In the corner of the locker room, as the newly minted Minnesota fans celebrated, a man who was a significant part of all the 49ers’ success zipped up his bag and got ready to head into the night. He was pleased but decidedly more subdued than his teammates. He knows how quickly life can change in the NFL.

Alex Smith’s word of the day was “humbling.” That could sum up his entire NFL career. And it described his experience Sunday.

With 5:57 to play in the fourth quarter and the 49ers leading 27-6, Smith entered the game, replacing Colin Kaepernick. It was Smith’s first appearance since he threw a touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree in the second quarter against the Rams on Nov. 11.

Then, Smith came off the field with blurred vision. He sat out with a concussion, lost his job, was swept into a quarterback controversy, and watched his team proceed without him.

As he entered the game Sunday, Smith received a standing ovation from the fans. He heard cheers of “Alex, Alex, Alex,” and “Let’s Go, Alex.”

“It was humbling, very humbling,” Smith said. “I’ve had ups and downs here. We’ve been through a lot, the fans and me.”

That’s an understatement. Many of the same people cheering him spent six seasons booing him off the field. Some of them were probably the same ones chanting for David Carr during a bad loss to the Eagles two seasons ago.

“It almost made it sweeter in a sense,” Smith said. “We’ve come a long way.”

Now, as his time is winding down, there might be an appreciation of what Smith has meant to the 49ers. His perseverance through a strange career path. His blossoming into a player who got his team to the NFC Championship Game and who became, this season, a league leader in quarterback efficiency. And the classy way he has handled his demotion.

“There’s a part of you that wants to be out there playing,” Smith said. “For sure, that’s always going to be hard. But this is a team sport. You have to swallow that part of it and be there for the team. I have a new role and I accept that role. I want to try to help this team win.”

Smith took six snaps. He completed one pass, to Bruce Miller, 3 yards short of a first down. Smith wasn’t in there to get the passing record: With six more attempts, he could have qualified to win the league passer rating. For the past two months, his statistics have been frozen at the top of the leaderboard.

Maybe the title wasn’t meant to be. Maybe it would be too awkward to have to cut the league’s passing leader in the offseason.

Harbaugh isn’t a particularly sentimental man, so it might be true that he simply wanted Smith to have real game action in case he needs to play in January. Or Harbaugh actually might have planned for the QB whose pads he used to pound before every game to receive an ovation in what might have been his final appearance at Candlestick.

“I’m not thinking about that at all right now,” Smith said of a possible farewell.

And he claims he isn’t thinking about where he might be next season. He wasn’t auditioning for the Arizona Cardinals.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “That’s for you guys and everyone else. I love what’s going on here. This is such a great group of guys.”

As he came off the field to cheers, Smith had a big smile.

“He deserved it,” said Frank Gore, who has been with Smith every step of the way.

The previous Sunday, the 49ers endured a dismal, bitter night. But on Sunday, the pendulum swung in the other direction. After a very slow start, their defense and offense clicked back into action. They beat the Cardinals 27-13. And then Minnesota did them a huge favor by beating Green Bay. Everything went right.

“That’s just the way of the NFL,” Staley said. “You can’t get too up and you can’t get too down. You can only control what you can control.”

The way of the NFL. NFC Player of the Week in one game against a division opponent, out of a starting job and reduced to mop-up duty in the next meeting. Booed for most of six years and cheered on your way out the door.